Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Power Play Comes Alive for Texas Stars in 6-2 Road Win

(Credit: Vince Rappelyea/San Diego Gulls)

Texas came out of the gate hot tonight and never cooled off. The power play came back to life and Curtis McKenzie had a hat trick, his second pro trick, and added two assists to boot. The Gulls managed just 15 shots on Landon Bow, who earned his first win of the season in the 6-2 contest. Max French also scored his first professional goal.

Even with McKenzie's hat trick, the big story of the night was the power play. Ranked 30th in the league, the Stars were showing little to no life on the man advantage. Given six opportunities this evening, Texas converted on three. The same PP unit was on the ice for all three: Julius Honka, Justin Dowling, McKenzie, Travis Morin and Brian Flynn.

Colin Markison got the scoring started early with his second of the year before the power play kicked off. Brian Flynn notched his fourth to make it 2-0 after twenty minutes. McKenzie earned his first off the setup from Dowling to make it 3-0. McKenzie extended the lead to 4-0 just 101 seconds later with a tip-in off a shot from Roope Hintz. San Diego would get one back on the power play before the end of the frame, but the period ended 4-1 for Texas.

French added his goal early in the third, a redirection of a McKenzie shot, to make it 5-1. San Diego again struck on the power play but so would Texas. McKenzie would earn his hat trick on the power play in the 12th minute on a deflection from Morin's point shot for the 6-2 final.

Bow stopped 13 of 15 shots against, certainly no help to his save percentage, but earned the win.

Texas returns home now to play Grand Rapids in back-to-back games this weekend.

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